New Scientist has round-up on exotic materials

Exotic material fun
The New Scientist has a nice round-up post on exotic materials, including odd stuff that gets fatter when it's stretched, frictionless superfluids, ferrofluids, and some neat and improbable dry ice stuff.

Like: Dilatants - fluids that get more solid when stressed. The classic example is a mixture of cornflour and water - it's runny until you hit it when it becomes solid.

There is a video that shows how it is possible to run across an apparently liquid pool of the stuff because your footfalls solidify it. If you stop, you sink.

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Via: BoingBoing

Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon turns 100

Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon turns 100
An appreciation of Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon 100 years after it was painted. "It's not just 100 years in the life of a painting, but 100 years of modernism. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is the rift, the break that divides past and future. Culturally, the 20th century began in 1907.

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VIA: Kottke

The Art of Espresso

Espresso Art
He makes the coffee black, then pours the frothed milk carefully into one area, then using the thin end of a spoon he crafts the image.

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Greenpeace Asks for a greener Apple...

Greenpeace Asks for a greener Apple...
We love Apple. Apple knows more about "clean" design than anybody, right? So why do Macs, iPods, iBooks and the rest of their product range contain hazardous substances that other companies have abandoned? A cutting edge company shouldn't be cutting lives short by exposing children in China and India to dangerous chemicals. That's why we Apple fans need to demand a new, cool product: a greener Apple.

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The World's Smallest Thinker

The World's Smallest Thinker
Using lasers, Korean researchers have crafted a microscopic version of Rodin's famed sculpture "The Thinker" just about twice the size of a red blood cell at 20 millionths of a meter high.

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Studio Pin-Ups

Studio Pin-Ups
How do you reach lots of agency creatives when you've got a tiny budget? Put your message on something they stare at all day long: the wall. This makeover of the traditional 'studio pin-up' calendar not only demonstrated Taylor Lane's expertise in typography, it also acted as a perpetual reminder of them throughout 2005 while refreshing itself every month. It was controversial; it provoked comment and created a 25% increase in turnover from existing and new clients.

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